Italy Slashes Discount Rate to 4%;
Falling to Lowest Rate Since 1972

A Wall Street Journal News Roundup

Updated Oct. 27, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

ROME --- After holding out for six months, Italy's central bank finally made the interest-rate cut exasperated financial markets had craved -- slashing the key discount rate a full percentage point to its lowest level since 1972.

In a gift to the new government of Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, which includes Italy's first Marxist ministers since 1947, the bank said it was cutting its discount rate to 4% from 5%.